"The speed? I love it as much as it scares me" Interview with Caterina Forza, protagonist of the series Motorvalley on Netflix
Blu Valentini sounds like the name of a champion. And that is exactly what the driver in the series Motorvalley will have to prove to be. The show is a six-episode original created by Francesca Manieri, Gianluca Bernardini and Matteo Rovere, the latter returning to the world of curves and engines he had already explored with Italian Race (Veloce come il vento). The series is not a remake of the 2016 film, but rather a return to a setting the authors wanted to revisit, taking viewers away from the usual family dramas and searching for adrenaline elsewhere, this time in the world of motorsport. Playing the indomitable Blu is the young Caterina Forza, born in Rome in 1999, who for Motorvalley adopted a strong Romagnolo accent as well as throwing herself at full speed onto the circuits of the Italian GT championship.
Caterina Forza talks about Motorvalley: interview with the star of the Netflix series
“Blu, Arturo Benini and Elena Dionisi find themselves at three very different moments in their lives,” says Caterina Forza, describing the protagonists of Motorvalley. “But fate brings their paths together and they end up helping one another. It’s a completely new world, especially for Blu, who will have to face several challenges.” The actress, whom we had previously seen in another series, Prisma on Prime Video, got behind the wheel and immersed herself in a universe she never imagined she would be part of. “Am I sporty? I’ve always done sports, yes. As a child I went from dance to judo to athletics. Now I only do Pilates, at least it keeps me in shape!”
More cautious than her character Blu, Forza loves speed as much as it scares her. Perhaps that is why she places herself somewhere in between the thrill of adrenaline and the comfort of staying on the couch. “I force myself to stay in the middle,” the actress admits. “There are periods in my life when I don’t stop for a second. I’m always frantic, I stay up until three in the morning all the time. And then there are others when I like staying at home and spending time watching films.” What she loves most about her character, instead, is Blu’s complete lack of fear of other people’s judgment: “The main thing that attracted me to Blu is that she absolutely doesn’t care who’s watching her or what others think, everything just slides off her. She’s a strong, electric girl. I loved her desire to always show herself for who she is, without hiding behind any excuses.”
The value of teamwork on the Motorvalley set
While the characters must learn to trust one another, what Caterina Forza takes away from her experience on Motorvalley is precisely the sense of sharing that can be created on a set: “Cohesion is something very important, both professionally and emotionally, especially when you’re involved in a project for so long. When you’re away from home for months, it’s essential to surround yourself with good people. The goal should always be to create a group that can help bring change both in work and in private life. So yes, if there’s something I learn every time from a set, it’s that unity really is strength.”
Luca Argentero and the mentor-student dynamic
Contributing to this exchange was also Luca Argentero, with whom Blu constantly clashes in Motorvalley. A mentor-student relationship that is not always easy within the series, unlike what happened in real life between the two colleagues: “For seven months of shooting, Luca and I kept teasing each other, while at the same time building the closest relationship possible to form the Motorvalley team. We had to become a real team. Given our age difference, you might imagine the relationship would be more like father and daughter or older brother and younger sister. Instead, we became friends, and that helped us both give depth to the characters and create scenes that could really reach people.” A set full of fun and a series that promises to race onto streaming straight into viewers’ hearts. A show where you can watch Caterina Forza fly behind the wheel, streaming on Netflix from February 10.
